Riding the Storm (3 page)

He gave her a wary eye, rolled his body up, and stood all in
one motion, deliberately not accepting her hand. Once he was up, he quietly
asked, “You were trying to make a point with that?”

“Did you enjoy it?”

He closed his eyes for a second or two and opened them,
shaking his head and talking in a nice, conversational style, still not upset
or flustered in any way. “Oh, this is rich. I begin to wonder if maybe I’ve met
someone I might want to have a relationship with, and it turns out she’s a
Domme. Is that it?”

“You’re telling me you’re a Dom?”

He turned away from her to walk towards the trees. “Yeah,
and you seemed to be responding like a natural submissive right up until I
found myself flat on my back.” He stopped at the first tree with the rope
attached, and turned to give her a lopsided smile. “You sure you aren’t a
switch?”

She returned his smile. “Positive. You still haven’t
answered whether you enjoyed it or not. You responded like you did.”

“I kissed you back, the feel of your lips on mine was nice,
but being dominated didn’t do anything for me.”

Damn, he was telling the truth. She’d picked up the
quickened pulse and thought it was lust, but it wasn’t, it was just the rush of
it, the adrenaline. He’d enjoyed it for the sake of the kiss, but not because
of some latent submissive tendency — she didn’t smell the kind of lust
she’d smell if he was turned on by her dominance.

However, there
had
been the adrenaline rush, so she
tried that angle. “How big of an adrenaline rush do you think you’d have under
my control? Isn’t
that
what you liked about what I just did? The
unknown? You’ve never had a woman able to lay you down and take control, and
when I put your arms down, you didn’t fight me. Not at first. As soon as you
resisted I pulled back. I’m not into force — I’ll only take you if you
submit.” She smiled. “But if you submit, I guarantee you an adrenaline rush.”

“And I can guarantee you mind blowing orgasms if
you
submit. Are you suggesting we switch? You one night and me the next?”

Kendra chuckled, and then grinned as she realized he’d made
her nearly laugh. “No, actually, I was just suggesting you submit to me.” But
for this man? She might consider switching a
little
. He’d chased away
the darkness that’d been eating at her for decades, and her entire body tingled
at the prospect of living life with joy again.

He shook his head as he disconnected the webbing from one of
the trees. “I’m pretty sure that isn’t going to happen. Once a relationship is
established I might agree to submit for one scene just for the adrenaline rush,
but I’m wired as a Dom and that’s the only way a relationship with me will
work. I’ve tried vanilla with people who weren’t into power exchange, and it’s
just a road to heartache because it isn’t enough for me. I don’t date like a
normal guy, my only relationships now are with people I know are in the
lifestyle before we even start.” He shrugged. “Something about you made me want
to learn more about you. The kiss on the way back up was so I could see if you
had submissive tendencies, and you do. Deny it if you want, but you responded
to the kiss and you responded to my instructions once we were back on top.”

Kendra liked this human, and he’d be a great companion if
she could, well,
tame
him into it, but she didn’t see how that could
happen if she submitted to him. But,
damn
, he was right — she’d
been majorly turned on when he kissed her on the way back up the mountain.

She deflected the conversation. “Can I help you pack the
ropes, or are you picky about the way they get stored?”

He smiled. “I’m picky. Just sit and we’ll talk while I do
it, don’t feel like you need to help. If we do this a lot I’ll show you how I
like it done, but tonight it’ll be easier for me to just do this part of it
myself.”

“I’m going to walk into the woods a second while you do
that.”

He shook his head as he worked. “It isn’t safe to walk
around on the edge of a cliff at night. If you just need a minute to think then
sit there and do it, and I’ll be quiet.”

She wanted to argue about her night vision, but decided it
wasn’t worth it. She walked a few steps, sat on a nice flat rock, and sent the
feelers in her mind out to Abbott.

Abbott?

A minute, Kendra, let me finish what I’m doing. Are you
okay?

Yes, just need some advice.

Okay, just a minute or two, please.

True to his word, a few minutes later he came back with,
Now,
you have my undivided attention.

I found a man tonight who’ll make an excellent human
companion. He’s so full of life, and we really hit it off, but it turns out
he’s a Dom. When he kissed me, I felt, well, I reacted. You know, like a
submissive. It’s been over a thousand years since I submitted to one of us, and
I’ve never submitted to a human. I know this is hopeless, but Abbott, he’s so
full of life, and he smells like sunshine. I’ve only known him a few hours but
I don’t want to walk away from him. What’s going on? And how in the hell could
it work for me to submit to him anyway? I’m so much stronger than he is, there’s
no way he’d ever be able to overpower me.

Abbott’s mental voice came across supportive and caring.
Human
men submit to human women who are weaker than them all the time Kendra. For
humans, it isn’t about who’s stronger, but about an arrangement to exchange
power — an agreement that one is turned on by submitting and the other is
turned on by being in control. You may have some challenges to your status if
it gets out you’re submitting to a human, but once you make a few examples of
those who challenge you, no one else will say anything. If you find yourself
wanting to submit to him, go for it. I’ll back you with the other vampires if
anything is said. I’d have a hard time doing so if you wished to submit to
another supernatural, of course, but submitting to a human doesn’t affect the
vampire hierarchy or our political position with the other groups.

Kendra watched Eric coiling the rope, his forearm muscles
shifting deliciously.
But, if he’s in control, how can he be a human
companion?

I’ve never done it myself, but I know other vampires have
made it work. I can’t give you any advice other than to say it’s possible.

I think he needs to know I’m a vampire before we go much
farther. He needs to understand I’m stronger than he is. Normally, there’s more
of a relationship established, but in this case he needs to know before he and
I start talking about limits, or he’ll never understand why my limits are going
to be so far out there. Plus, I don’t want to start our relationship with lies.

Okay, set a time with him. I can get away tomorrow
evening around eight, either at his house if he lives alone, or bring him to
the coterie house. I’ll help you tell him and make sure the binding takes.

Kendra wasn’t terribly sure about this, but was willing to
give it a try to see what happened. She wanted to taste of this man, not just
his blood, but his life force. More than that, she wanted to spend time with
him and get to know him. When you live for thousands of years, you tend to pay
attention when someone special pops into your life. She wasn’t willing to submit
to him around the other vampires until she was sure it would work, but once she
was certain, she’d figure out how to deal with them.

“Eric. Come give me another kiss.”

He gave her a lazy smile as he looped the rope around
itself. “You giving me an order? I think we’ve already covered the fact I’m
used to being the one giving orders.”

Yep, that settled it. The extra little twinge she felt
between her legs meant she was indeed responding to his dominance. She knew
what he wanted to hear, and she smiled as she asked, “Eric, will you please
come give me another kiss?”

He smiled and gently placed the rope he was working on at
his feet before walking to within a few feet of her. He spoke softly, but she
could sense the strength in his gentle tone. “Stand up, Kendra, and put your
hands behind your back.”

She looked up, met his gaze, and narrowed her eyes. “Don’t
push it, Eric.”

“You want me to kiss you so you can be sure it affects you
the way you think it did when we were hanging off the cliff, right? Does the
idea of having to hold your hands behind your back while I kiss you turn you
on? I’m trying to help you answer your question. If we’re going to do this,
you’ll have to learn to trust me.”

Damn, he was right. She gracefully stood and put her hands
behind her back, hyper-aware of her breasts sticking out, with no way to keep
them from doing so without releasing her hands. She was under-endowed, and
barely filled a B cup, so it wasn’t as if they were sticking way out, but she
still felt self-conscious. After going so long without submitting, it was
almost like she’d never done it before.

This was going to be even more difficult than she’d
envisioned.

Eric took the last two steps to her, put one hand ever so
gently on her cheek, the other on her hip, and slowly brought his lips to hers.
Tender at first, but then he held the back of her head just under her ponytail,
aiming her face the way he wanted, and his kiss grew more insistent until she
melted into him and the trees around them faded away, his lips, his hands, and
the beat of his heart the only things she was aware of. He slowly eased up,
then pulled back a few inches before placing both hands gently on her cheeks
and then ever-so-softly kissing her forehead.

“You can release your hands now, Kendra. Did that answer
your question?”

She closed her eyes a second to get her bearings and then
opened them to his questioning, piercing gaze. She held eye contact and
answered, “It’s going to be hard for me to submit. Can you be patient? Treat me
like I’m new to the lifestyle? Actually, I think doing it this way may be
harder than being new. Going from Domme to sub is... I’m not certain I can, but
you’re correct about my response, and I think I owe it to both of us to explore
it.”

He ran his finger down her cheek and gave her another small
kiss on the lips, just a touch. “Yes, I can be patient where I think it’s
called for, but there’ll be some things I won’t go slow with. Your submission
will be just that much more exquisite, knowing what you’re going through to
offer it.”

He stepped away with a mischievous glint in his eye as he
said, “Not to mention knowing you could put me flat on my back if you wanted,
and are choosing to submit anyway. You’ll have to show me that trick at some
point. I’m almost done with the ropes and then we can head back. When you’re
ready, we can sit down and talk about hard limits and soft limits, what you
think might turn you on, and what’ll turn you off. But, if you want to wait a
few weeks, just date for a while first, that’s okay.”

“You’ve seen my house, I’d like to see your yacht. Do you
have plans for tomorrow night? I could be there around eight? Maybe we can talk
a little and then you could take me for a ride around the lake? Or am I being
too forward, inviting myself?”

“You’re being honest, and I like honesty. Come hungry and
I’ll make you dinner.”

“I’ll have already eaten by then, but drinks might be nice.
What do you drink when you aren’t drinking beer? I don’t suppose you drink
wine? I can pick something up on the way.”

He smiled. He had a beautiful smile. “No need. I have a
great desert wine I can open.”

The next night, Abbott followed Kendra to the marina but
wasn’t obvious about it. The two had talked, and Kendra had decided she’d go
for a regular relationship with Eric instead of a traditional human companion
arrangement. If he happened to be okay with her drinking his blood, it would
just be the icing on the cake.

Abbott would wait until she used their mind connection to
let him know she was ready for him before he boarded the yacht to help her
explain the whole vampire thing. Strict rules kept humans from knowing about
them, and the humans who knew of their existence were metaphysically bound so
they were unable to tell the secret. Once she told a human what she was, she’d
be required to bind him to her before she could leave his presence. However, a
proper binding involved biting him, which she wasn’t going to do without Eric’s
permission.

If Eric chose not to be bound, she’d have to erase his
memory, so he wouldn’t remember her telling him.

Bindings had to be witnessed, and while Kendra was one of
the four people Abbott had empowered to certify a binding, she couldn’t
authenticate one she created, which was the main reason for Abbott’s
attendance.

She was having second thoughts about telling Eric, but knew
it had to be done sooner or later, and had a feeling that with Eric, sooner
would be much better than later. As she exited her car, she saw him climbing
some wooden steps towards her, his energy so bright and strong he practically
glowed.

“Hi Kendra, I believe you’re even more beautiful than I
remembered. It’s good to see you.”

She smiled at the warmth in his eyes. “It’s good to see you
too, Eric. Which of these boats are we climbing onto?”

He offered his arm, and her hand settled around sculpted
muscles and warm human. His heart rate sped at her touch, and she was comforted
with the knowledge she affected him as much as he did her.

They walked side-by-side past the area with slips for the
boats, to a dock with huge shed-like structures on either side. Eric led her
into one of the sheds and Kendra stopped in the doorway and stared at the huge
yacht in the gigantic boathouse. The garage-type door to the bay was open on
the other end of the boathouse, so they had a view around the side of the boat
out into the water.

As they stepped up onto the gigantic yacht, she realized it
was bigger than the pirate ship that’d tried to rob the ship she’d sailed on
from England to India so many years ago. Hell, it was bigger than the ship
she’d sailed on, for that matter.

When Eric took her inside she was even more amazed —
it was a home, not just a boat. He walked her around and she saw three
bedrooms, two and a half baths, an impressive office, a living room on one
level and more of a party type room on another level, a kitchen area, and even
a small dining room.

“Creating video games must pay very well.”

He shrugged. “I started my own company a while back, and
managed to successfully market a few cutting edge games. One of the larger game
houses bought my company for about ten times more than it was worth, and part
of the deal was that I’d continue to work for them. I pretty much got to set my
pay, so I told them I wanted a salary plus a cut of the profits on any game
that was my brainchild, and I wanted to work from home. They’d rather have me
on their team than as the competition, so they agreed without much negotiation.
Some in the gaming world said I sold out, but in reality it just freed me up to
do what I really wanted to do anyway — create video games. Running my own
company was a huge pain in the ass, and I only did it because no one wanted to
let me just create a game on my own, without letting a damned committee make
all kinds of changes before it was even off the ground. I didn’t want to go to
meetings about it between conception and creation, and argue to try to keep it
as my creation. This arrangement allows me to conceive it and then create it,
with an awesome team to help with coding and animation, which was the goal all
along.”

They walked into a more casual room, obviously designed with
parties and entertaining in mind, and Kendra made a point of looking around
before saying, “I don’t see a dungeon or a play room, is it downstairs by the
boiler room?”

He grinned. “Look at the wall behind you and tell me what
you see.”

“It looks like an interior designer got creative with those
huge anchor chains. It’s an attractive way to decorate the spot of blank wall,
and though I might not have taken it all the way to the floor, it works.
Whoever did it had an eye for what would look good in here. Rough chains
wouldn’t have worked, but the gunmetal black ties it in perfectly with the
other hardware in the room.”

“The wall’s been reinforced, and the chain is anchored well
enough so every link can be used as a bondage point. I can tie you to it to
give the feel of a Saint Andrew’s Cross, or a whipping post, or a number of
other pieces of equipment. You noted the canopy over the bed in the master
suite? The struts across the top have been reinforced enough to use for
suspension. There’s decorative hardware in the headboard, foot-board, and all
up and down the sides of the bed that double as bondage tie-off points. The
bench at the foot of the bed? The legs are adjustable, so I can put your knees
on it and bend your hips over the back of the foot-board, and it’s a perfect
spanking bench, complete with tie-off points to secure your ankles, knees,
thighs, lower back, and hands.”

Kendra’s lower body went into overdrive. Never mind his
reinforcements couldn’t hold her, she was so aroused by the mere
idea
of
being restrained in the ways he was talking about, she was in danger of
self-combustion. Thank goodness Eric couldn’t smell her arousal, though she was
certain he was aware of it, even without vampire senses.

She rolled a half dozen responses in her head, and decided
her best course was to change the conversation. “Let’s open the wine and sit
where we can talk. I’d hoped you could take me for a ride after we talked, but
now that I’ve seen how big this thing is, I imagine it’s quite a job to get it
in and out of the boathouse.”

“It’s no problem, but I have a smaller ski boat we can take
out, and it’s more fun for a joyride. If you want to talk first, we can
certainly do that.”

He brought the wine in a bucket of ice along with two
stemmed glasses. He opened and poured as if he’d done it a thousand times, and
nodded her towards a more formal living area.

Before starting, she probed into his mind enough to place a
beginning marker. If she had to clear his memory later, she’d wipe it from this
point forward. She also opened communication with Abbott, so he could hear her
conversation with Eric.

“Eric, there’s something you need to know about me, and when
I first start talking you aren’t going to take me seriously, or will possibly
think I’m crazy. Don’t interrupt, just let me talk for about three minutes, and
then I’ll give you whatever proof you want me to supply.”

She took a deep breath — not that she needed to
breathe, other than what was needed for the mechanics of talking, but she wanted
to get as much of this out as she could before he interrupted.

“I’m not human. Not anymore. When I was twenty-three years
old, I was turned into a vampire. I’m very old, even though I don’t look it.
Hang gliding with you at night wouldn’t have been dangerous because I can fly,
and I wasn’t nervous about going over the cliff to rappel for the same reason.
I’m inhumanly strong and fast, which is how I put you on the ground so quickly
when I kissed you. I have excellent night vision, and I can hear about a
hundred times better than you. I can also hear frequency ranges outside of
human hearing. Life is much easier as a vampire now that there are blood banks,
so we can purchase bagged blood. I don’t eat food. The only things I drink are
water, unsweetened tea, alcoholic beverages, and blood.”

Abbott had come in while she was talking, but Eric hadn’t
seen him yet.

“This is my friend, Abbott. I was a little nervous about
telling you so soon, so he’s here to help me explain. Normally, we like to wait
until we know someone fairly well before we share our secret, but... you’re
different. You needed to know sooner, rather than later.”

She couldn’t tell what Eric was thinking, and didn’t want to
invade his privacy by reading his mind. However, she could tell he didn’t
believe her.

Eric glanced at Abbott and then looked back to Kendra,
adjusting himself a little in the chair so he could more easily keep an eye on
both. “You said you had proof? I think it’s time to pull some of it out.”

“What would make you believe me? Tell me and I’ll do it.”

“You can fly?”

There wasn’t enough room to fly inside, so she levitated up
from the chair and floated across the room and back, sinking gracefully back
into her seat. She looked at him the entire time, but he waited until she was
seated again before responding.

He didn’t get flustered, just calmly said, “Well, that
is
a neat trick. I thought vampires had fangs?”

She opened her mouth so he could see her teeth, let her
fangs grow and stay out a few seconds, and then shrink back to their normal
size.

She saw him grow pale, and smelled his fear.

“Please don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you, and neither will
Abbott.”

“I’m not afraid, and I’m not completely convinced yet,
either.”

“Eric, every human emotion has a smell. I can smell when you’re
afraid, when you’re horny, when you’re angry, when you’re happy.”

She heard Abbott in her mind.
That’s not helping, Kendra.
Let him get used to the idea of not being able to hide emotions later.

How do I help him not be afraid?

You know how to do this. Sit back in your chair, look
relaxed. Drink some wine. I’m going to stay on the other side of the room and
be as discrete as I can, for now.

Kendra sat back in her chair, uncrossed her legs and
re-crossed them the other direction. Abbott was right, she knew how to make it
easier for him. She pulled enough air in to speak, and told Eric, “We don’t
have to kill to feed. We take less in a feeding than the Red Cross takes in a
blood donation, and our bite is
much
more fun — if I choose, I can
make it orgasmic. However, I’ve already fed tonight, as has Abbott. We aren’t
interested in your blood. Very few humans know of our existence, and I’m only
telling you because I want to try to have a relationship with you, and, well,
this is probably information you need to know, if we’re going to date. I wanted
to be honest with you up front.”

“If you were to bite me, would I turn into a vampire?”

“No. You’d need to be bitten on many consecutive days, and
then have your blood drained to the point just before death.”

“Then bite me and make me orgasm.
Then
I’ll believe
you’re a vampire.”

Kendra was shocked, this was the last thing she’d expected.

“I’ll step outside for a moment,” Abbott said from across
the room.

Eric looked over at Abbott. “But you have super hearing,
right? So you’ll hear us from outside, too.”

“Yes, but sometimes the illusion of privacy is better than
nothing.”

Kendra needed to talk to Eric about binding him. She’d
figured he’d need some convincing for her to bite him in order to bind him, but
with him asking for it, she needed to get permission now so she wouldn’t need
to bite him twice.

“Eric, we need to talk about something before I bite you.
It’s part of the reason Abbott is here. Vampire society has a lot of rules
designed to keep our secret and thus keep us safe. The only way we’re allowed
to share the information with humans is if we perform a little ritual, so we’ll
be alerted the moment a human even thinks about telling our secret. I won’t do
it, though, without your permission.”

“But, now that you’ve told me you kind of have to do it,
right? So it doesn’t matter if I give permission or not.”

“No, we have two options. I can make you forget I told you,
or I can bind you so you can’t tell our secret.”

He was trying hard to appear calm, but his scent gave away
his anxiety, fear, and shock as he asked, “You can make me forget?”

Kendra nodded. “Yes. Before blood banks, when we fed on
someone who wasn’t a companion, we had to make them forget it happened. It’s an
evolutionary thing, I guess, but the point is that you don’t have to go through
the binding ritual if you don’t want.”

“You have to drink my blood to do the binding thing. What do
you have to do to make me forget?”

“Just look into your eyes.”

“And you’re telling me because you want to have a
relationship with me.” His voice was incredulous, disbelieving… and yet he was
being forced to believe, as there were no other logical explanations.

“Yes.”

“Would this relationship involve the regular taking of my
blood?” He was a rich businessman, after all, so he jumped straight to what she
might want from him, how he might be taken advantage of.

“Only if you want me to,” she tried to assure him. “As I
told you, now that there are blood banks, I’m no longer dependent on finding
human sources for blood. There’s something called a human companion, someone a
vampire keeps around as an intimate source of food, and that’s probably how the
vampire community will see you — at least at first. However, I’m
interested in
you
, I want to get to know you, spend time with you, and
if you don’t want the sharing of blood to be part of our relationship, it
doesn’t have to be. It’s a very intimate act, almost more so than sex
sometimes, but if you aren’t comfortable with it then it wouldn’t be
pleasurable, so I wouldn’t want to do it.”

“After you’ve bitten me and bound me, if I wanted you to
make me forget, could you still do it?”